Hypnos (Cthulhu Mythos)
Summary Hypnos is the Greco-Roman Deity of Sleep and Dreams, being their lord. Within H.P. Lovecraft's Mythos, he appears in the eponymous Short Story, Hypnos. The Lord of Sleep meets by chance with a nameless mortal, who immediately sees his divinity in his Olympian beauty and the fathomless wisdom within his eyes. When the Narrator begs Hypnos to be his friend and teacher, he accepts without a word. Hypnos lectures his mortal companion on the nature of dreams, and the true scope of all reality, and of how the mortal existence bound by space and time, and the physical universe, is but a bubble to the infinity that is the universe of dreams. Through the usage of exotic, most-likely mystical drugs, Hypnos takes his friend through the realm of dreaming, which the two explore in eternal, timeless voyages. It's in these travels that the nameless human learns of the Lord of Sleep's final intentions: Becoming the sole and absolute ruler of all existence. He becomes fearful and horrofied at Hypnos' grandiose ambitions, but nevertheless continues being his follower. During one dreaming, however, Hypnos decides to take his human friend on a journey far beyond the realm of dreams, the two passing beyond all levels of Dimensional Space-Time to reach the bottomless Aether outside. Hypnos continues, and takes the decision of passing through the Gate that leads to pure Outer Chaos. This decision cost him greatly, the sight of what lied beyond driving Hypnos into pure horror. Left insane by the glimpse of the Outer Gods beyond, Hypnos refused to ever sleep again, lest he'd fall prey to such entities. Alongside his human friend, he grew old and weakened, yet always watched the movement of the stars, particularly the Corona Borealis, fearful and vigilant. One night, Hypnos can no longer stand not sleeping, and collapses into slumber, his forces and godly youth returning to him. However, that left him open to the actions of Outer Horrors, and through the Corona Borealis came a horrific sound from beyond, the sound of the maddening whining of flute, and with it a faint red-golden light which hit him in full. Screaming in madness and pain, the Lord of Sleep was no more. All that left of him was a petrified carcass of his physical form, to which his now-clinically insane friend prayed too every day and night. Powers and Stats Tier: 1-A Name: Hypnos, The Lord of Sleep Origin: Cthulhu Mythos Gender: Male Age: Inapplicable. Exists beyond all definitions of time. Classification: Greek God of Dreams, likely an Elder God Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Immortality (Types 1 and 10), Non-Corporeal, Flight, Telepathy, Astral Projection, Acausality, Reality Warping, Dream Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Spatial Manipulation, Matter Manipulation, Causality Manipulation, Concept Manipulation, Higher-Dimensional Manipulation Attack Potency: Outerverse level (Easily capable of existing in, and comprehending the nature of realms far beyond Dimensional Space, and ascending to even more transcendent realms beyond that, on his own. Traversed past the Gate, though what he saw beyond it drew Hypnos to complete insanity and horror) Speed: Irrelevant Lifting Strength: Irrelevant Striking Strength: Likely Outerversal Durability: Outerverse level Stamina: Infinite Range: Likely Outerversal Standard Equipment: Inapplicable. Intelligence: Likely Nigh-Omniscient (Able to exist far beyond all time, space and matter. Holds vast knowledge on the cosmos, including of the Outer Gods beyond the Gate. Easily capable of comprehending the nature of realms far beyond Dimensional Space) Weaknesses: None Notable Feats Excerpt I: "And when he opened his immense, sunken, and wildly luminous black eyes I knew he would be thenceforth my only friend—the only friend of one who had never possessed a friend before—for I saw that such eyes must have looked fully upon the grandeur and the terror of realms beyond normal consciousness and reality; realms which I had cherished in fancy, but vainly sought. So as I drove the crowd away I told him he must come home with me and be my teacher and leader in unfathomed mysteries, and he assented without speaking a word." Excerpt II: "Of our studies it is impossible to speak, since they held so slight a connection with anything of the world as living men conceive it. They were of that vaster and more appalling universe of dim entity and consciousness which lies deeper than matter, time, and space, and whose existence we suspect only in certain forms of sleep—those rare dreams beyond dreams which come never to common men, and but once or twice in the lifetime of imaginative men. The cosmos of our waking knowledge, born from such an universe as a bubble is born from the pipe of a jester, touches it only as such a bubble may touch its sardonic source when sucked back by the jester’s whim. Men of learning suspect it little, and ignore it mostly. Wise men have interpreted dreams, and the gods have laughed. One man with Oriental eyes has said that all time and space are relative, and men have laughed. But even that man with Oriental eyes has done no more than suspect." Excerpt III: "There was a night when winds from unknown spaces whirled us irresistibly into limitless vacuum beyond all thought and entity. Perceptions of the most maddeningly untransmissible sort thronged upon us; perceptions of infinity which at the time convulsed us with joy, yet which are now partly lost to my memory and partly incapable of presentation to others. Viscous obstacles were clawed through in rapid succession, and at length I felt that we had been borne to realms of greater remoteness than any we had previously known. My friend was vastly in advance as we plunged into this awesome ocean of virgin aether, and I could see the sinister exultation on his floating, luminous, too youthful memory-face. Suddenly that face became dim and quickly disappeared, and in a brief space I found myself projected against an obstacle which I could not penetrate. It was like the others, yet incalculably denser; a sticky, clammy mass, if such terms can be applied to analogous qualities in a non-material sphere. I had, I felt, been halted by a barrier which my friend and leader had successfully passed. Struggling anew, I came to the end of the drug-dream and opened my physical eyes to the tower studio in whose opposite corner reclined the pallid and still unconscious form of my fellow-dreamer, weirdly haggard and wildly beautiful as the moon shed gold-green light on his marble features. Then, after a short interval, the form in the corner stirred; and may pitying heaven keep from my sight and sound another thing like that which took place before me. I cannot tell you how he shrieked, or what vistas of unvisitable hells gleamed for a second in black eyes crazed with fright. I can only say that I fainted, and did not stir till he himself recovered and shook me in his phrensy for someone to keep away the horror and desolation. That was the end of our voluntary searchings in the caverns of dream. Awed, shaken, and portentous, my friend who had been beyond the barrier warned me that we must never venture within those realms again. What he had seen, he dared not tell me; but he said from his wisdom that we must sleep as little as possible, even if drugs were necessary to keep us awake" Category:Characters Category:Cthulhu Mythos Category:Book Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Gods Category:Greek Gods Category:Cosmic Entities Category:Abstract Entities Category:Immortals Category:Higher-Dimensional Beings Category:Reality Warpers Category:Space Users Category:Time Users Category:Matter Users Category:Mind Users Category:Flight Users Category:Telepaths Category:Teleportation Users Category:Causality Users Category:Concept Users Category:Dream Users Category:Neutral Characters Category:Acausal Characters Category:Tier 1 Category:Nigh-Omniscient Beings